Challenging the Status Quo

I shared this post on my 'Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts' blog back in November 2012. I went back to it this weekend and noticed that a considerable amount of the links shared are from fellow Connected Principals. Pick ONE, and be the change you want to see in your school. ~ Dave.

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Educational bloggers blogging about things that need to be changed… This isn't a post to read from start to finish. Instead, pick a topic that may challenge the status quo in your school or district and dig in. Read, tweet, share, write your own post, comment… it is fodder for YOU to challenge the status quo!

HOMEWORK

Which includes this Alfie Kohn quote:
“It strikes me as curious on the face of it that children are given additional assignments to be completed at home after they’ve spent most of the day in school – and even more curious that almost everyone takes this fact for granted. Even those who witness the unpleasant effects of homework on children and families rarely question it.”

“Another positive of having this discussion in a web-based setting has been the fact that we have gotten feedback from people in other parts of the world who have had these same discussions. We are truly fortunate to live in a day and age where this type of sharing can take place so easily.”

AWARD CEREMONIES

“If you are a person who believes school is all about grades and awards, I am afraid that you will not like the decision made by our school yesterday; if you are a person who loves the idea of the “proud parent of an honour roll student” bumper sticker, you may be frustrated by our school.”

“Creating an awards system in school; there is no right way.
Have you ever been in a meeting with your colleagues discussing how awards should be given out? Should the average be 85% or 80%. What subjects should it include? Should it only be the “core” subjects? There are so many things that are not right with this process.”

MARKS/GRADING/ASSESSMENT

Marks seem to take our attention away from what matters. I find it funny that we can assess young kids without grades and then around Grade 3 we suddenly start indoctrinating students into the paradigm of good marks = success

“If grades are a distraction, and are not necessary for any entrance requirements, why have them? Why do elementary student need to be graded? It would seem to me that the purpose of a report card is to report a child's progress. The report card should focus on what specific skills have they mastered, improved on or are struggling with.”

Abolishing Grading ~ By Joe Bower. Joe is very vocal on this topic and this is a page dedicated to things he has written on the topic.

“It does suggest that the traditional ways of measuring student success and learning have not changed at the rate that society has. The current system of letter grades has been around for decades.
How many effective institutions have remained unchanged in that time?”

ZEROS AND LATE PENALTIES

“Doug Reeves, Thomas Guskey, David Langford, and Ken O’Conner among others have researched this for years and have thoroughly explained why zeros create a huge hole for students to dig themselves out of. So why assign them…

Learning is a continuous process and real world deadlines are flexible. There are deadlines and penalties, but companies want their payments regardless if it’s on time or not.”

“Here is my issue with Late Penalties being applied to student work. If we are going to reduce an entire course worth of work down to one symbol for the purpose of reporting, should we not at the very least ensure that the grade is accurate?”

“As a teacher, I don’t take any marks off for something coming in late. It is my job to make sure that students demonstrate their learning and meet the learning outcomes during the year. All time lines within the year are arbitrary (and usually teacher determined) and not a requirement worthy of penalty. Exceptions may be made where either Personal Planning or Goal Setting are part of the outcomes.”

“What are people thinking when they believe that giving late marks motivates students to complete homework on time? The research is so clear (just email Rick Stiggins if you would like a sampling, or watch Douglas Reeves http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZyrz0NcuE to see his piece on Toxic Grading Practices, or look up any of the work by Ken O'Connor, such as A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades, or Guskey et. al, etc.) that this does not work.”

As suggested in the video Cale linked to above, “The appropriate penalty for missing work, is getting the work done” ~ Dr. Douglas Reeves

HIGH STAKES TESTING

(Canadian Style, nothing nearly as bad as what Americans deal with!)

From me: Open Letter to the Fraser Institute. I take a rather brash approach to prove my point that ranking schools according to a single test is unfair. And I further make the point that ranking schools at all is ridiculous ~ this continues in the comments.

Dear Fraser Institute,
You SUCK!
In fairness I am telling you this on the basis of a single observation. One salient point. That’s all I need.

“A couple of friends with students at schools outside of our district were telling me that the kids had been practicing the tests for a couple of weeks and were a bundle of nerves because they were told how important these tests are and that they had to do well to represent the school.”

“How could so many many smart people elected to lead our nation take us down the forsaken path which has led to so much unnecessary suffering and misdirected energy in our classrooms with high stakes testing?”

I have tried to not only simulate the real world, but give students opportunities in the real world. I often describe it in simple terms as moving to real-real, instead of fake-real (mock trials, case studies etc).

…the move to personalized learning, the focus on “the 7 C’s”, and the power of technology to allow us to do things not possible before, have really changed the dynamics.

We need to personalize the learning for our educators and our students… seeing both first and foremost as learners. We can’t cookie-cutter our professional development to teachers and expect meaningful results. We can’t evaluate students based on tests with easily Googleable answers. We can develop a sense of learner responsibility by personalizing learning, making it meaningful and making it work that matters.

“A teacher is by definition a professional and over time they've had their professionalism eroded. That should stop. I want the future teachers I teach to be responsible, caring adults that have developed a network of educators and a culture of sharing that will make them and their students successful. If I can help facilitate that, they will be an asset to any school they work at. They'll be professionals.”

“…the mere implementation of 1-1 laptops alone will not accomplish great learning gains; they need to be integrated into effective, contemporary, forward-looking, best-practices learning environments, one where teachers are serious about engaged, active, collaborative, and creative student learning.”

A look at the world outside of our schools and the technological resources being accessed in so many professions that allow people to work “smarter” is a clear indication of the track that our students need to be on in order to be able to function in the “real world.”

In the past two weeks I’ve moved from a school with just 3 projectors in a 4 floor, (no wireless), school to a school with:
• Projectors in every classroom (that we will be using next school year).
• Netbooks for every teacher.
• Wireless in key rooms and common areas.
AND…
• Beginning next September our Grades 7-9?s will be bringing their own laptops to school!

FACEBOOK

“Instead of worrying about the message your school is sending on social media platforms, consider the message your school is sending by NOT engaging with social media at all.” M. Peacock via Ferriter, Ramsden, Sheninger.

A colleague and I were discussing Facebook and he mentioned that parents at his school had created their own Facebook Page for the school and were leaving some negatively toned comments on topics such as head lice and behaviour. At that point I decided to take (at the time) a risk and I created our “Parent Info For Kent Elementary” Facebook Page.

FILTERS

Distributing these USB sticks to teachers is done as an interim measure. For now, this will allow these teachers to get to many great resources and will allow them to use powerful Web 2.0 tools. Teachers will also be able to show their students the resources they choose and deem appropriate. I have dubbed these loaded USB devices “freedom sticks” as this was exactly what was gained from this experience.

CHANGE

“Questioning everything is idiotic and a waste of time. Teach them to question wisely.” appeared in my Twitter stream. It was a response to my statement, “The future comes from questioning everything.”

I'm not backing down from my assertion, the context of which is the argument that, as educators, our job is to help students learn to “question everything.”

Ira reminded me of my post: Question Everything that I wrote, while still in China, to start off 2011.

Little did I know that within a year of writing this I would be part of the design and development team for a new school, the Inquiry Hub opening in September of 2012. Reading my post again, I am just thrilled to see that we truly are questioning everything!

“This is where this discussion comes full circle. Change begins with me. I am not going to rely on someone else to provide me with development opportunities as an educational professional. I am going to find others, through my professional learning network, who will challenge my way of thinking, offer advice and suggestions, and share their ideas about what works in our schools and classrooms. If you are serious about your profession, I would encourage you to do the same.”

I've spent a bit of time Thinking About Change. And that's probably why I wrote this post in the first place!

This was inspired by reading Chris Kennedy’s post by the same name.
Chris starts his post:“With all the discussions swirling around personalized learning, and school reform, I have been thinking a lot about change, and how we do it right.”

LEARNING SPACES

So, I ask you: is your ‘connectedness’ showing and making a difference in how you learn and lead? It better be because that’s how we (meaning the world) live and learn today. As a leader you must be visible, be open, be transparent, be googleable, be shareable, be participatory and be connected.

My fear is that many of our students suffer a similar response when they enter our schools and classrooms. Consider the structure and setting of a typical classroom. A teacher’s desk and chair, student desks (generally with the chair and writing surface connected), limited number of windows, sterile paint (i.e. eggshell), and perhaps a bulletin board or two.

Classroom => Desk => Notebook/Textbook => Disengage/Isolate

And Blogs as Learning Spaces, a video that shares why I blog, and why blog with students. I wanted to end this post with something that shows the incredible power of blogging to help spur your learning and educational change.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It starts with you!

What are you going to do now?
Who will you share this post, or one of the posts linked to above, with?
What will you do to tip the scales and be a meaningful agent of change?

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2 Comments

[…] I shared this post on my ‘Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts‘ blog back in November 2012. I went back to it this weekend and noticed that a considerable amount of the links shared are from fellow Connected Principals. Pick ONE, and be the change you want to see in your school. […]

[…] I shared this post on my ‘Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts‘ blog back in November 2012. I went back to it this weekend and noticed that a considerable amount of the links shared are from fellow Connected Principals. […]

October 22, 2013

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